This is Ganmyagmar Ayurzana. She’s a butcher in Mongolia and she is my latest Kiva loan.

As a small business owner I am frequently asked for donations to help fundraise for various organizations or groups. Much as I’d like to I can’t give to everyone who asks so I created a company policy about donations.

Kiva is my chosen charity although technically it’s not a charity. Kiva provides micro-loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries. Lenders don’t have to fund an entire loan, you can fund as little as $25 so a single loan may have dozens of lenders funding it. Each borrower must commit to paying back their loan and Kiva has a far higher repayment rate than most banks in the Western world.

As a lender when I want to find a borrower I can click on a world map to lend my money to certain countries, I can pick gender and sector to lend to. I see a brief profile of who is receiving my money and I read about why they want a loan. This is not an anonymous writing a cheque, this is a story. I like stories.

I created a necklace called the Karma necklace. Karma, what goes around comes around. 25% of the Karma necklace is allocated to Kiva. Thanks to my Karma necklace selling out this season (yes I am making more this week), I funded a loan to Ganmyagmar, a weaver in Cambodia, a fisherwoman in Singapore who needed the money to mend her fishing boat, a food stall in Peru and a pupusa stand in El Salvador. All entrepreneurial women who will improve their lives because you bought a necklace.